The Dubai Criminal Court has sentenced an African man to 10-years in prison for concealing drugs in a banana box.

The 35-year-old man tried to smuggle 300 grams of drugs and has been ordered to pay AED 50,000 fine which will be followed by deportation for attempting to smuggle drugs.

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Last September, a customs officer at Dubai International Airport apprehended him after checking the box and its contents at the Criminal Laboratory were confirmed to be narcotics.

Denying knowledge that the substance was prohibited in UAE, the man who had arrived on a visit visa said to have received the box as a gift from a friend in his home country.